Smithsonian to showcase Indian American community

Washington: The Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum and research complex, is launching a $2 million project to tell the story of millions of Indians who have made America their home over the last 200 years.

The ambitious project - "HomeSpun: Made in the USA" - hopes to establish a permanent presence within the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to the history, achievements and contributions of America's rapidly growing Indian American population.

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The exploratory phase of the project, expected to take shape by 2009, was launched here Thursday by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Programme Director, Franklin Odo with Indian American community leaders Parag Mehta and Toby Chaudhuri.

HomeSpun plans to include a national travelling exhibition, related public programming at the Smithsonian, a dedicated website and a middle school curriculum guide for the Smithsonian's young visitors.

Working with the Smithsonian, Mehta and Chaudhuri have formed a working group to help make this dream a reality. They hope to raise $200,000 by yearend to provide seed money for the exploratory phase with plans to engage the Indian American community and others to gauge support and to solicit input for the project.

HomeSpun will chronicle the immigration of Indians to America and point to the impact and contributions they have made in diverse fields like medicine, engineering, technology, education, culture, the arts, media and politics.

But it would not tell the story of just engineers and doctors, but also of farmers, hotel and motel owners and truck drivers from India who have made America their home, the community leaders said.

They also invited Indian Americans to contribute old pictures and other interesting objects to get the project going.

The Smithsonian dedicated a special section for Sikh Americans and their contributions to American society in an exhibit three years ago, but HomeSpun strives to be a much larger project about a broader Indian American experience, Odo noted.

"There are millions of Indian Americans, but the story of their struggle and emergence in this country is largely unknown to the general public," he said. "It's time to tell the story of the people of India who have made their home in America for more than two centuries."

The project will showcase the Indian American story for some 24 million visitors who come to the Smithsonian every year and nearly 100 million other visitors on the Internet.
Source: IANS